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Oct 20, 2010
Editorial boards across the state have rebuked Rebecca Kleefisch, the Republican nominee for Wisconsin lieutenant governor, for refusing to debate Democratic opponent Tom Nelson. Pundits also have taken her to task for avoiding interviews and news conferences.
Debates and personal appearances are all that’s left of the democracy that our founding fathers envisioned. They could not have imagined an age such as ours, when candidates buy political offices through slickly produced, ubiquitously accessed commercials filled with lies and false accusations.
But this is the only possible way a candidate like Kleefisch could win an election, and her running mate Scott Walker knows that.
Kleefisch says she’s proud of being frequently compared to her fellow “mama grizzly” Sarah Palin, but Walker’s campaign has no desire to experience the devastation that Palin wreaked on John McCain’s presidential campaign when she opened her mouth without a script.
Kleefisch shares all of Palin’s most extremist views. She believes, for example, that humans and dinosaurs co-existed on the planet after God created the heavens and the Earth about 6,000 years ago. Like Palin, she’s said that she would look to the Bible over the Constitution as her guide for governing.
Unlike Palin, however, Kleefisch has absolutely no experience in government or in managing anything. She was a news anchor at Milwaukee’s WISN-TV before parlaying her name recognition in the state’s largest media market into a victory in a low-profile, overlooked political race.
Perhaps it’s smart of the Walker campaign to keep Kleefisch under the political equivalent of house arrest, but it’s bad for democracy and for Wisconsin. If Walker and Kleefisch win, she will be the governor-in-waiting. Voters have the right to know her views and see her in action on the political stage.
Go to Kleefisch’s campaign website and click on “issues.” You’ll be taken directly to Walker’s issue page. At least Palin had more gumption than to be relegated to the back of the bus in such a transparent way.
Voters will have to ask themselve the questions that Kleefisch won’t publicly face: What could she possibly contribute to economic development in this state? And why should voters trust a candidate who isn’t trusted by her own campaign?
